Azzurra had stayed with Erys for a while longer after they had indulged in each other, reveling in how she felt and the way he looked at her. All of it had answered some questions and brought up many more, but she was grateful for this wonderfully kind man that soothed all of her pains and worries. She dozed off in his arms after the cathartic act was done and when she came to it was very early in the morning. It was still mostly dark out, but the sky was just beginning to lighten with the impending dawn. A bit of reality hit her as she realized how long she had been gone from Balthier and the fact that if he noticed her absence he might come looking for her. She had already made her peace with whatever repercussions might come from this for herself, but she didn’t want sweet Erys to get caught in the crossfire.

Carefully, and reluctantly, slipping from his embrace, Azzurra quietly slipped out of the well decorated bungalow and back out into the open air. She followed the beach back around to the section of the island where the bungalow she shared with Balthier was located. Her steps slowed as she got closer to the bungalow, trying and failing to guess what would happen once Balthier knew. She had already decided that she wasn’t going to lie to him no matter how painful it was going to be. One thing all of this had made her realize was that hiding how she was feeling was only hurting her more. She needed to just get it out in the open and deal with whatever consequences might come… no matter how much that terrified her.

She didn’t go into the bungalow right away. She stopped maybe a dozen feet from the stairs that would lead her up to the door and instead turned toward the near by ocean. Wading into the cold water, she started rinsing off her fur and washing away the traces of last night’s acts. Even though it was mostly for her own comfort to not have her fur all matted and to feel a bit more refreshed, she also didn’t was to make things worse coming home covered in another man. It was already going to be hard enough to explain any of this as it was. By the time she was done the sun had crested over the horizon, the beginning of the sunrise starting to light up the island. Nerves fluttered in her stomach as she stepped out of the water and onto the beach, giving herself a good shake to get most of the water out of her coat. Settling on the sand outside of the bungalow, she watched the sunrise for a little bit and tried to decide how she would address everything.

"Azzurra"

Balthier hadn't been up while Azzurra was out. Sleep wasn't difficult to come by with or without his sister and when she left the den he hadn't even noticed. He wasn't due on any patrols today, but he was still a pretty early riser given the fact he usually had duties to do.

The sun slowly lit up through the windows and around the door and the dim light of the early morning is what woke him. He instantly felt the absence of his sister but didn't jump up in a panic. It was odd to him but there was no need to freak out. He knew she did some of her own things like running and what not. He stretched in the bed of furs before rising to his feet and exiting the den.

He took a second to adjust to the sun on the horizon but it didn't take him long to see Azzurra out on the beach. His neck craned in a stretch before approaching her. "Good morning." He spoke as he was close enough and then he joined her on the beach. "You're up early." He spoke through a gentle smile, having no suspicions about what had happened the night prior or where she was just a few hours ago. Maybe he was a little dense, but he tried to not to force so much control of her when he could feel that rising. Though taking a dip in the water this early in the morning was quite odd.

"Azzurra & Balthier"

Azzurra laid on the beach and watched as she sun began to rise while her coat slowly dried, but she didn't have to wait long before she heard movement behind her and glanced back over her shoulder to see Balthier walking out of the bungalow toward her. A fresh wave of nervousness hit her, but she did her best to keep her composure. She tried to find strength in the fact that she at least had one other friendly face in this pack. She didn't know if Erys would still be as welcoming and friendly outside of the surprise encounter late at night, but she hoped that he would. It gave her a little bit more confidence as Balthier came to lay next to her on the sand, greeting her and commenting on how she was up early. "Good morning," she said softly in return, glancing down at the sand between them as she gathered her thoughts. "Yes... I am," was all she could say at first while she struggled to find the bits of statements that she had planned out in her head.

"Balthier... I... I have to be honest with you," she said after a moment, glancing up at him uncertainly. "Hiding things has only made all of this worse and I don't want to keep doing it." It felt like that was the key to help the flood gates open even though the anxiety of it was making her heart beat harder against her chest. "I... I was with a man last night. I drank the last of the wine we had and went looking for someone and... well..." She looked at him nervously, afraid of what he was going to say or how he was going to react. "I just... I needed it and I wanted to not feel like I should feel guilty for it and I... I wanted to know if I could enjoy it with someone else and... I..." She struggled and stumbled over her words, her mismatched ears flicked back against her head as she tried to find a place to stop, a way to fully tell him how she had been feeling, but it was hard. She didn't want to hurt Balthier, but at this point she wasn't sure if there was a way around it. She had been hurting and hiding her pain for so long to try and keep the status quo, but she couldn't do it any more. She had to rip the band-aid off if she had any hope of finding her way out of this.

"Azzurra"

Balthier had already made himself comfortable there beside Azzurra and while she may have seemed a little tense in her first greeted words he was not expecting what would come next.

The surprise and hint of hurt was easily shown on his face from the moment she said, but it only got worse from there. At first he didn’t move. Like he was a statue, like he was in shock. It wasn’t anything he even thought was possible from Azzurra, and for a while it seemed like he was stuck in some sort of trance. "What?" He paused, his voice was neither angry or calm. "I don’t understand. You fucked someone?" In the last bit his tone turned more aggressive as his immediate hurt emotions came out. There wasn’t time, or rather he didn’t give himself time to think in response. He really rather forgot everything she had said surrounding the part that she had been with a man. His thoughts couldn’t even function enough to think that it was even someone in pack.

His rump rose off the sands as his eyes nearly seared into her. He could have been misread as more furious than anything else but his real raw emotions were set on the betrayal that he felt from his sister. He couldn’t understand why she had done it. He didn’t go to say anything else, instead immediately turning away just to get away from her.

"Azzurra & Balthier"

Azzurra felt her heart in her throat as Balthier seemed to freeze in place as he listened to her, not moving or reacting for a long moment. Somehow the suspense of it was even worse than if he had just immediately reacted and it made her tense as she waited for some kind of response. Eventually she got it when he questioned her in disbelief, his emotions difficult to read as always. The way he said it, the way he declared that she had fucked someone, hurt as if he had slapped her and she winced a little glancing away from him. What she had done with Erys didn’t feel like just fucking. It had felt like it meant something and fed the broken parts of herself in ways she hadn’t known she needed. For him to condense it down like that made sense in his anger but it still hurt.

She was speechless as he got up, looking up at him to see the fixed look of anger and hurt in his eyes. Her ears pinned against her head and her mouth gaping as he started to walk away, willing words to leave her that never did. Her gaze fell back to the sands between her paws with a sigh, her eyes closing as she tried and failed to rein in her conflicted, heart breaking emotions. The twisted parts of her wanted to chase after him, to apologize, but she knew she needed this. She needed to find her own wings and there was no other way to do it.

"Azzurra"